Sunday 8 November 2009

Masters of the Arts

Right, now that I finally have five minutes to myself (major bickering over who gets internet access that night) I can at last have an hour or so to jot down my inner most thoughts for you all to read with your cup of tea, and today children is all about my inspiration.

A couple of weeks ago I was asked which master of art I like. Quite tricky, I thought, as I have researched and transcribed so many over the past few years ( H.R.Giger was quite interesting I might add) but I didn’t want to pick someone who had only inspired me recently, I wanted to go way way back, back to my childhood.

We are always arguing whether or not we are born creative or we acquire it, whether it’s innate or we develop it as a skill. Either way I figured that the art I have seen as a child would deep down have influenced me more than I know.

So sat in my rented, poorly decorated room I envisioned my family home.

For as long as I can remember I have stared at an African sunset that takes pride in our living room but that was a mass produced print so that wouldn’t do ( though it may explain my love for warm places :P)

Okay, think Rachel, think. My dad’s decoupage, no. A giant fading tiger print, no. Paint by numbers, no. but then, right there in front of me were two tiny paintings at the top of the stairs. Thick heavy brushstrokes depicting two poppy fields in a French landscape.

Emotional, beautiful, Renoir.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir was a French impressionist who developed his early artistic skills in a porcelain factory and his abilities to capture a social working-class gathering or the waters of the seine have inspired me all my life.

His paintings dance and sparkle with colour and tone, whether it be finely detailed like ‘Girls at the Piano 1892’ or expressive as seen in ‘Coast Near Wargemont1880’. his use of colour is almost daring in some landscapes, using pinks and purples to communicate texture and depth.

Just by replicating a few of his paintings I have developed new skills in which I can finally add my own personal touch into my digital paints, and this is why Renoir is my Master.